


The Microbes And The Plankton

by Fandomoverload5



Series: Klangst week 2018 [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Klangst Week 2018, M/M, Omg day two posted at 1am on day three, at least i'm only behind by an hour, but also super extra, just my style, like poetic, this is a bit of a mess but it's super extra and dramatic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-26
Updated: 2018-03-26
Packaged: 2019-04-08 08:09:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14101113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fandomoverload5/pseuds/Fandomoverload5
Summary: Day 1: remember/forget->Day 2: fire/water <-Day 3: fear/angerDay 4: light/shadowDay 5: create/ruinDay 6: alien/humanDay 7: give/take





	The Microbes And The Plankton

**Author's Note:**

> Who's in what lion  
> Black: Lance  
> Red: Allura  
> Blue: matt  
> Green: Pidge  
> Yellow: Hunk
> 
> Don't worry it's pretty much not relevant who's in what lion, I just wanted black paladin Lance but it's like supposed to be right after Keith's suicide attempt in the season four finale. Idk it's kinda a mess just roll with it. I wrote and reread this after 11 pm, it's not gonna be GOOD

A fire was lit in the sand. Deserted, of course, yet so close to civilization. Not the civilization you or I would think of, one very different and very far away. We can touch this intricate society, and we can hold it in our hands, yet we're still so far away. The microbes and plankton that populate the ocean live, breathe, and die, only feet from this flame, deserted in the sand. 

 

"Hey Keith, what's up?" Keith, lost in thought, turned to face the origin of his name. "Huh?" 

Lance walked over to Keith and stood next to him, staring out into the cosmos through the window. "I said, what's up. How are you doing, man?" Keith looked back to the stars, and shrugged. "I'm fine, I mean, it wasn't anything we all hadn't prepared to do. You would've done the same thing, so would Shiro, Pidge, Hunk, Allura, Coran, Matt, or anyone else on our side." 

Lance sighed and looked outside with Keith. "Alright. Be difficult." "I'm not being difficult. I'm sorry I don't have a massive feeling about almost dying, we practically do that every day." Lance sighed again and didn't respond, only uncrossed his arms and put them in his pockets. "Fine, we'll talk about something else. How's training with the Broke of Madagascar? Are they teaching you all sorts of fun fighting techniques?" Keith shrugged and said "I guess." 

There was a long enough pause for Lance to know Keith wasn't planning to elaborate. "Can you at least pretend to want to make conversation?" Keith turned to Lance and said, "I was here because I don't want to talk. I'm not in the mood." "It's because you're still shaken up from almost dying!" 

Keith angrily mumbled, "forget it." then began to walk away. "Keith! Come on man, I was kidding!" Lance chased Keith as he melodramatically made his way to the bridge in the hopes that Lance will get distracted by something or someone along the way. 

These microbes and plankton, they live life blissfully. They beg to know why the human gods hurt them like they do, and why they insist of invading the seas. The microbes and plankton don't leave the water, not just because they can't physically do it, but on principle. They want to advance, and to evolve, yet they have deep compassion within, and don't see the point in unnecessary development to go into a land that will only get them hurt. It's only the thirst for knowledge that draws these microbes and plankton closer to the deserted flame. They feel the thirst deep inside, and yet they're confined to the shape of the waves. Until the tide rises. 

 

The alarms blared, yanking all the paladins from their sleep. "A fleet is heading into our quadrant. Get to your lions!" Corans voice echoed throughout the castle, waking even Keith, who had chosen to spend the night to keep watch on the newly imprisoned Lotor. He didn't scramble out of his makeshift bed, like his old teammates had just done, he simply sauntered to Lotors holding cell, and watched him. Keith knew Voltron had this in the bag, he'd been with them long enough to know when a small raid was happening, and how they'd be back in about an hour. 

He plopped down on the chair next to Lotor, and watched him. Just like he said he would. Lotor, however, had remained asleep through all the fuss. Keith hadn't realized, on the other hand, that the conversations the paladins had was broadcasted over the castles announcement speakers. He knew it did that in the bridge, but even in the halls he could hear Lance shouting commands. Keith gave up on his pledge to watch Lotor, then made his way to the bridge to help Coran. 

"There you are! Okay Keith, help me keep the castle stabilized! Pull up the shield!" Keith followed the directions, hearing the distant screams of his friends, mostly triumphant. Coran gave him orders, which Keith numbly followed until, "Good work team! I'm proud of you guys!" Lances voice had changed since the last time Keith had flown with him. "It was all thanks to you, Lance. Honestly, I never would've taken down half of those Galra without you backing me up." Alluras voice was still energized, but in a celebratory way. 

Just like they used to, Hunk made a pun, Lance groaned and made a worse one, followed by a complaint about physical injury from Pidge. It was like clockwork. One thing was different, since Keith left. It was Lance being praised. He didn't notice until now, just how little praise Lance got from the team before he left. Especially from Shiro, the guy Lance once worshipped. Keith played Alluras words over in his head, again and again. She never said that to him, even though they never flew together. She never praised anyone like that. In fact, nobody ever praised Keith like that, either. They gave him acknowledgements when he was in red, then nothing but protests when he was in black. He just wasn't a leader, no matter how much his friends trusted him, but even in red he wasn't as good for the team as Lance was. 

 

The microbes and plankton, they reach out farther and farther. They've heard tales of humans, the gods they worship who can demolish life as old as time with the swipe of their finger. Oh how they've heard tales. That the human started out afraid of the microbes, that they couldn't get passed the shores. Then, they discovered this fire, and now? Now they grew into their power. The microbes and the plankton, they want to grow too... and so the tide rises. 

 

Keith knew his time aboard his old home, was coming to an end. The Basket of Marimba gave Keith 24 hours of rest, after what happened, so naturally he chose to spend it here. With his family. 

Now, Keith had finally begun to get excited. He missed the days on the ship, for this moment specifically. Dinner. Normally, he would be by Hunks side in bringing out the food, but tonight he showed up too late to help. He had taken a nap and drastically overslept the prime food preparing hours. 

He could hear laughter from the dining room, and stood in the hallway to listen in. "No no no! It's not like that! I swear! It was father who was the real... what do you call it, Pidge? When you drop things a lot?" "Klutz?" "No, she means a butterfingers!" "Isn't that a candy?" "What's butter?" "You can get it from kaltinecker." "Why did we ever name that stupid animal that?" "How dare you call her stupid! She is beautiful and she is more than an animal!" "Pidge, you were there when she had the sign on her at the space mall," "oh...right." "What's a space mall?" "Anyway..."

Keith turned away. He knew, the second he walked in, that dynamic would change. They would be quiet. They wouldn't know how to interact with him. He could already hear Lance desperately trying to make conversation for Keith's sake, or Matt scrambling to pick up what dying discussion they were having. He wouldn't laugh along with everybody like he used to, he would just sit there and bring the mood down. 

Before he left, he and Lance would steal the conversation, and have a good-natured fight. Like they usually did, and would let Pidge especially, or anyone else for that matter, chime in and make it funny. Like the time he and Lance were arguing over the fact that Lance pronounced milk like, "melk" and needed to be informed he was wrong. Naturally, Pidge had begun to play devils advocate and insist it was pronounced, "malk." As always, it was mindless, and they left the table with smiles as Hunk refused to believe that it was pronounced any other way than "myelk". 

Now, it was a story about how Allura spilt her drink on a diplomat during a meeting about territorial boundaries between a rival species. She was constantly interrupted with questions and off-topic tangents and he became jealous he wasn't there, both in the room, and in the story. Keith stood in the hallway and listened as Lance picked up a debate with Matt about how they drink their coffee. Matt, like any rational person, drinks it black. Lance, like any textbook-level extra person, drinks it with three milks and two sugars. They joked and went back and forth, in such a familiar way, Keith looked away from the crack in the door. 

The lights were on, but even then the light from the dining room cast a brighter light down the hallway, the small crack getting bigger the farther away from the door it was. Keith turned, and left. It wasn't his place to intrude. 

 

These gods, they come to the microbes and the plankton, and they come full of anger. They swished through colonies and razed centuries worth of work, in seconds. They separate the minuscule creatures of the sea to suppress them. To put out their ability to evolve and rise up against their vengeful gods. But these microbes and plankton reach for the flames that built the humans to the heights they're at now, and with each passing second they inch closer and closer. So the tide rises...

 

The Bark of Malfeasance had sent a pod to pick Keith up, but he had one last thing to do before he left. He gave everyone their goodbyes, except for the most important person on this ship, who wasn't even a person. 

The loading dock was deserted, shrouded in silence if not for Pidges computers whirring in the background. Keith approached Red, as she bowed her head to let him inside. He climbed in and sat in the seat. It didn't move forward like it used to, this being Reds sign that she remembers Keith but doesn't trust him again. She may never trust him like she did again. Would Keith even care?

"Hey Red," he spoke, "long time no see. How's Allura been treating you? I hope good. She's a good person, but she has my temper." Keith sat in silence for almost a full minute. "I'm not good at being the one talking. I'm more of a "nod along" kind of guy. You already know that, don't you?" Keith ran his hand along the side of the wall, trying to remember what reds energy felt like. 

"Why did you ever trust me, girl? I'm rash, impatient, and almost a million other bad qualities. My defining trait is my inability to get along with others, even the person closest to me. Did you chose me for my piloting skills?" Keith paused and pulled his hand away. 

"Did you chose me because I was the only one left? When we first met, I screamed at you, I commanded you. It took me piloting you for a long time to understand that you aren't commanded. Allura said I had to prove myself to you, Red. Did I ever prove myself?" Keith leaned foreword, and propped his torso on his knees, when Red began to move. "Woah girl, what's going on?"

Next thing Keith knew, Lance was placing his hand on the top of the seat behind Keith's back. "Hey Keith, I've been meaning to talk to you again-" "look i'm fine about the whole "almost died" thing, lay off." "It's not that." 

Lance walked around and sat cross-legged on the ground in front of Keith. "I just want you to know we miss you. I miss you. It's been a different chemistry since you left. It's a lot... I don't know it's just different. I know you have your Brake of Manspreading friends and you've found your niche, and hopefully your purpose too, but I just want you to know you've got a home here." Keith hadn't broken eye contact, and it felt strangely intimate. He still didn't break eye contact. 

"Lance I-" "nope. No personal stuff, i'm bad at that. Let's talk about something fun. Like...Red! Reds super fun! She's a determined girl, I will say that." Lance laid down and patted her floor. Keith still had the faintest enough of a connection, to feel the lions equivalent of a purr. He'd only felt it twice before, but Lance elicits a purr just for being in her. Keith had flown her for much longer than Lance, yet their bond was her easiest to break. 

 

The water contorted its currents, tying itself to the moon, to pull back and throw itself farther up the beach. The microbes and plankton stayed back during this process, making sure they weren't thrown around too much. It was all too easy to get disoriented this close to the shore. Risky pioneers ventured to the farthest tips of the waves, trying to catch glimpses of the dancing red wood. It was still just out of reach. Tantalizing. Yet the microbes and plankton cheered. Victory was upon them. 

 

"Hey Keith, is there any way you could bring me to the Ulippa system. A low level Galra was brought there, that looted one of our bases. He's not important or dangerous enough to use a lion, they're like a beacon for Galra forces. You're cruiser should be a speck on their radar, if that." Keith shrugged and sat behind the controls. "Sounds fine to me. Ulippa, you said?" Lance nodded and sat on the couch that lined the wall and hit the button to close the back door. Keith took off for Ulippa. 

As a joke, Lance suggested they played the license plate game. After that, the two boys spent most of the trip deciding which solar system would be each U.S. state. They didn't agree on any of them completely until Keith said that Ulippa was New Jersey, and Lance announced that his statement couldn't be topped, and therefore the game was over. At long last, they reached their destination, and saw the Galra ship moving in the distance. 

"Alright Keith, just drop me off, and I'll be fine." Lance put on his helmet. "You can just get in close, and I'll steal a ride home. Good luck, buddy. Have fun with your Bracket of Mandrake friends, and don't get killed." "Wait, you just used me as a ride? I'm not even fighting in your plan?" 

Lance shook his head no, as the Galra ship was getting bigger by the second. "Nope. I used you. Thank you for the ride, chauffeur, but I must be on my way." Keith grumbled, but still did as Lance asked. He could help but feel a twinge of jealousy, that Lance gets to go on this mission instead of him. He probably would mess it up some how, or get caught for not being stealthy enough. Well, that might not be true, Lance had grown a lot since Keith had last seen him. He was a lot more mature now, and probably wouldn't mess up. 

Keith was so distracted, he didn't hear Lances "sayonara!" as he hit the button to release him into space. Before he could even be sucked out into the void, the entire pod erupted into flames. 

Keith choked on the smoke, for no more than four breaths, before the air spread out so thin, there was no air. Among the debris, Keith felt his body swell. Like an allergic reaction, his body expanded. Before he knew what was happening, he wasn't breathing. 

"Keith! Keith, holy quiznak! No! No for gods sake please no!" Lance used the jet pack to get to Keith. "Please i'm begging you Keith wake up! Wake up, dammit!" Lance shook the limp boy, watching his features shift as the air left over in his cells yearned to dissipate into nothing. Lances hands shook as he pushed the strands of hair away from Keith's face. "You're okay, Keithy. It's all okay. It's..." Lance realized he was only saying these words to himself, alone, then stopped. How could he bring Keith's body back to the castle. How would he face his teammates again, knowing this was all his fault. If only Lance didn't ask to be dropped near the Galra ship, then the explosion wouldn't have happened. Damn fire...

Lance was so focused on Keith's face, bloated and broken, that he didn't notice Red swoop in. She annihilated the Galra ship, roaring in agony between each devastating blast. When the ship was throughly obliterated, she scooped up Lance and Keith in her mouth, then began the long journey home, crying out in pain for all of space to hear. 

 

The microbes and plankton did it. They did their waiting as the tide rose. Now, they infiltrated the logs. Only... each microbe or plankton that came in to contact with the flame, watched it disappear. They, although barely sentient, came to a realization, why the human gods come to their shores. It was not out of spite. They come to the microbes and the planktons waters, to be free. Their fires brought just as much good as they brought bad, taking down cities like they take down the microbes and planktons cities. The microbes and plankton are only victims in this situation if they stayed ignorant of the human gods fires, but now even the least sentient sea dweller could not call them ignorant. The next time a human comes to demolish a million lifetimes worth of work, the microbes and plankton will show them just who is the god out of the two of them, without the humans and their precious fires even noticing. 

And so the tide falls.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote Keith dying so badly please don't roast me


End file.
